The people rise up in Iran

In Legal Insurrection, Vijeta Uniyal reports on the insurrection in Iran.

731 banks, 140 regime offices set on fire by protesters, says Ayatollah Khamenei.
Anti-regime protesters torched around 731 banks in nationwide unrest that began two weeks ago, Iran’s top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei admitted. The demonstrations against the Shi’a Islamic regime started on November 15 after Tehran announced the rationing of gasoline and a sharp hike in fuel prices. Protesters also turned their anger at symbols of the regime, setting fire to banners and billboards depicting Ayatollah Khamenei and Islamic propaganda.


As many as 200 demonstrators have been killed so far and more than 4,000 arrested, dissident Iranian groups said. Besides police, the regime deployed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Shi’a Basij militia against unarmed protesters. Forces loyal to the regime were using live ammunition against unarmed demonstrators, several video footage show.

“Verified video footage show snipers shooting at people from rooftops,” German newspaper Bild confirmed. “In at least one instance, a helicopter had been used for the shooting.”

“A video showing the protests at Shiraz University show IRGC gunmen opening fire at demonstrators with machine guns. Elsewhere, other videos show Basij militia’s snipers shooting the protestors from government building rooftops,” Prague-based Radio Free Europe reported.

The flames of protests have swept across to neighboring Iraq as well, with protesters burning down Iranian consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. Many Iraqis accuse Tehran of interfering in the country’s internal affairs and propping up a pro-Iranian Shiite-led government in Baghdad. This is the second attack of its kind in Iraq, earlier this month protesters tried to enter the Iranian consulate in Karbala city. No Iranian diplomat was harmed during these incidents.

There are signs that Tehran might be losing hold over the population, and finding it difficult to find loyal recruits to bolster the ranks of its armed forces. The regime has heavily depended on IRGC, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, to crush the uprising.

IRGC, one of the prime targets of the recent sanctions imposed by Washington, has stretched its manpower and assets by wading into conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. The IRGC leadership is urging its women militia members to have higher birth rates and raise the next generation of jihadi recruits. An IRGC commander on Saturday told the women members of its Basij paramilitary force to have “at least five children.”

“The women’s Basij should be pioneers in this matter,” IRGC commander Ali Fadavi said. “We should have at least five children in the families of the IRGC and Basij members.” The Tehran regime needs “jihad makers, guards, and defenders to maintain its existence, identity, and investments,” he added.

The popular uprising against the regime can be credited to President Donald Trump’s policy of ‘maximum pressure’ on Tehran. While Germany and France have been busy appeasing the regime, in hope of keeping Tehran within the 2015 nuclear agreement and thereby holding on to their lucrative oil and trade arrangements. President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Obama-era deal, forcing European and Asian countries to cut their commercial relations with Tehran or face secondary sanctions.

Germany and France are yet to come to terms with the new reality, seeking ways to facilitate bilateral oil and gas trade in defiance of the U.S. sanctions. Former Secretary of State John Kerry admitted meeting Iranian officials several times in a bid to keep the nuclear deal alive. Many in the European political establishment and within the Iranian Mullah regime hope to ‘sit out’ President Trump, looking forward to a favorable Democrat-led administration by 2020.

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